Assessment District Urged in Capistrano

By SUSAN DEEMER

Feb. 25, 1998 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO —

Hoping to ease classroom overcrowding, city and Capistrano Unified School District officials are considering a tax on new homes to help build two more elementary schools.

The county’s third-largest school district has grown by 28% in the past five years, from 31,206 students in 1993-94 to 40,115 students in 1997-98, prompting district officials to urge the city to establish a Mello-Roos Community Facilities District.

In response, the City Council last week approved a temporary ordinance requiring developers to establish such an assessment district for new subdivisions. The city will study whether to make the ordinance permanent.

Applications are pending to build 1,068 units, say city planners.

Seven Mello-Roos districts have been created in other communities served by Capistrano Unified, but none exists in San Juan Capistrano.

Under the tax districts, property owners in new developments typically pay a certain sum per unit via their property tax bills to help build schools. The revenue backs construction bonds. It hasn’t been determined how much a Mello-Roos district could increase the cost of a new residence here.

“Property owners would pay a special assessment that would go directly toward building permanent schools,” said city Planning Director Tom Tomlinson. “Developers would have to form the district or we would not approve their plans.”

Some developers say that new home buyers shouldn’t bear the entire cost of constructing schools.

“Builders are being asked [in some cases] to pay for 100% of school facilities around the state,” said Steve La Mar, a lobbyist and member of the Building Industry Assn. “We think it’s a broader burden and it shouldn’t be put in the form of a tax on new-home ownership.”

For school officials, the proposed assessment district is the solution to a desperate problem.

Three years ago at San Juan Elementary School, the most crowded facility in the district, officials sent sixth-graders to Marco F. Forster Middle School. But San Juan, which was designed to house 656 students, shot back to more than 1,000 students the next year.

Then, officials altered school boundaries, sending 74 students from San Juan Elementary to Del Obispo Elementary School. They also staggered recess, organized three lunch hours, added three portables for a total of 18, and divided four portables into two classrooms each.

The second effort to relieve pressure at San Juan didn’t succeed any better than the first.

Students in all kindergarten, fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms are in classes of 32 and 33, said Principal Aida Nunez. “Our enrollment has increased every year regardless of what steps we have taken to maintain a lower enrollment.”

Other crowded schools in the district are Harold Ambuehl Elementary and Del Obispo Elementary.

There is a developer fee in San Juan Capistrano, but school officials maintain that that fee--limited to $1.94 per square foot--doesn’t meet school construction costs. So the district wants this second tax to draw more money for new schools.

David Doomey, assistant superintendent of facilities planning, said the district has identified two sites that would accommodate about 1,400 students. The district needs about $19 million to build the two schools and buy land for one them, he added.

Capistrano Superintendent James A. Fleming said the Legislature is considering two bills that could make it difficult to establish new Mello-Roos districts. Current law allows school districts to work with cities to deny a development if its impact on schools isn’t offset by revenue to build classrooms.

Assembly Bill 252 by Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) would increase developer fees to a maximum of $3 per square foot by Jan. 1, 2000. It also caps the fees to 50% of costs for school facilities.

Capistrano officials say that bill would repeal the law allowing school districts to halt a development if fees are insufficient.

A second bill would cap developer fees at $1.93 per square foot without scheduled increases. According to a district study, a developer’s portion of construction funds should be $6.64 per square foot from single-family units and $4.35 per square foot for multi-family units to meet costs.

“If the bills pass . . . there would be no incentive on the part of a developer to form a Mello-Roos district,” Fleming said. “Some might do it out of the goodness of their hearts, but there is no legal hook.”

“Residential development is the prime factor in school overcrowding so there needs to be a way for districts to work with developers and demand mitigation to build schools,” Fleming said.

The two bills are a top priority for developers, said Christine Diemer, executive director of the Orange County Building Industry Assn.

“We have problems with the fees because they vary so much and there is no methodology backed up by school districts to justify increased fees,” she said. “We want accountability. They need to back up [these fees] based on demographics or capacity . . . before they do a quick fix to raise fees for homeowners and the price of homes.”

The City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed Mello-Roos district at 7 p.m. March 17 in council chambers, 32400 Paseo Adelante.

Susan Deemer can be reached at (714) 248-2150. Her e-mail address is susandeemer@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

School District Squeeze

New developments are pressuring already overcrowded Capistrano Unified School District schools. Student population has grown nearly 30% since the 1993-94 school year, 7.17% since 1996-97. Four schools are operating at maximum student levels:

Total students

1997-98 40,115

Four schools are particularly hard-hit by the growth, despite shifting students, reestablishing boundaries and taking other steps. None have room for new portable classrooms. How their student bodies have fluctuated:

San Juan Elementary

1995-96 952*

1996-97 1,029**

1997-98 1,044

* Sixth-grade students moved to Marco F. Forster Middle School

** Boundary change moved some students to Del Obispo Elementary

Harold Ambuehl Elementary

1996-97 855*

1997-98 822**

* Moved sixth-graders to Marco Forster

** Boundary change moved some students to Richard Henry Dana Elementary

Del Obispo Elementary